Mike White rewrites his softball story

Mike White never intended on being a softball coach.

“The reason I went back to school was I wanted to own my own business,” he said Monday in a telephone conversation from his home in Austin, Texas.

After some urging from others, though, the Mount Mercy University graduate gave it a shot and now has a national championship on his extensive and successful resume.

You read that right.

The coach of the Texas Longhorns softball team is a former Mount Mercy student and was a men’s fast-pitch star in Cedar Rapids — although most called him Michael or “Whitey” during his playing days in the Major Open.

A native of New Zealand who once dreamed of a career in soccer, White was one of the best pitchers to ever land in Cedar Rapids during an era when men’s fast-pitch softball ruled summers.

He ended up pitching for 11 teams that won American Softball Association national or International Softball Congress “World” titles, including Cedar Rapids Teleconnect in 1987. He was named MVP in five of those ASA/ISC tournaments.

He has used the lessons learned as a world-class pitcher to become one of the best women’s softball coaches in the country. Last Friday, Texas downed Texas Tech, 10-4, in Game 3 of the Women’s College World Series championship series on to win a national title — a first for the school and for White.

And, it turns out, White wasn’t the only Iowa connection on the Texas team. Sophomore pitcher Teagan Kaven is from West Des Moines, although she never played high school softball at Dowling. All she did at the World Series was post a 4-0 record with one save, allowing no earned runs 31 2/3 innings.

She, unsurprisingly, was named Most Outstanding Player. And she had some kind words for her coach.

“Without coach White, I don’t know if we’re here,” she said in an Associated Press story. “He’s the best. He’s so competitive. He wants it just as bad as we do, of course. And he pushes us to be better every day.

“He makes me a better pitcher mentally and physically. And so there’s no one else I’d rather play for. He’s the bomb, and I’m glad we got it done for him.”

White joked he paid her well.

“That kid trusted us,” he said, more serious. “Everybody promises them the moon ... and she trusted us.”

She trusted White to make her the better pitcher she wanted to become, something White has striven for during his coaching career. It’s why he decided coaching seemed like a good career path all those years ago.

But, he said, “you can’t really judge your whole career on one moment.” It’s all the women he’s coached, all the individual success stories along the way.

And it almost didn’t happen.

White was at a women’s softball showcase when Ralph Weekly, who was director of national teams for USA Softball at the time, convinced him he was needed in the women’s game.

White, however, didn’t want to start at the bottom and work his way up. He wanted to start at a “top level” program and see if this was the path he wanted to take. He was hired as pitching coach at Oregon in 2003.

But after a two years, White decided maybe this wasn’t the route he wanted. He started doing private pitching lessons and mostly spending time with his wife, the former Lisa Revers from Cedar Rapids, and coaching their three daughters.

Then Oregon wanted him back, this time as head coach.

“You come to a fork in the road, you take it,” White said.

He coached the Ducks for nine seasons, taking them to five Pac-12 titles and five World Series appearances. He won 435 games in those nine seasons, losing just 111.

Texas came calling after the 2018 season and, well, Texas being Texas, Whitey took another fork in that road and moved his family to Austin.

White said he saw “so much potential” in the women’s game that he had to take a shot 20-some years ago.

“I thought there was room for growth,” he said. “I thought I’d be able to help them out.”

Seven seasons in Texas and 316 wins later, he has done just that — and now is a national champion.

“I’m still trying to process the whole thing,” White said in that AP story after clinching the title. “Actually, it’s something you dream about.”

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